“How Are You?”: Rediscovered

Plans for coffee, for meetings, for gatherings, for walks with loved ones, for lists. It all sends others across, on, before your path and you into theirs.

Quick hellos and greetings of whatnot, connecting you verbally, socially.

How are you…?

– dribbles out of the mouths.

A greeting that is trampled, automated, maybe dreaded.

Fine; good; eh; alright

Their tiny pillows – soft forming lips – slowed down and pressed together to form “How…Are…You…?”, pushing a moment of human existence, of connection, out of them. Words carried through warmed breath as whispers on your ears, seeping them into your soul as though it is the first time you are hearing life… “How…Are…You…?”…

And then it is heard:

“How…”

: a probe coupled with a breath. The mind dances between the then and now, fluttering with what was, what is, what is to be. A reflection, but a moment, a moment that draws a gaze towards the bubbles in your coffee, to the golden fall leaves dancing above you, to the existence of those around you, outside of the self but then back to the self, to your own breath.

“Are…”

: that of which is to be. Now, listening, this breath which provides you life, to experience life, is bringing you to this moment, to be a moment, do be a now.

“You…”

: a direction, a recognition of a self, the verification from those around you that you exist, yet a whole, a part, a part of this.

And then, then these words that dribble out of those around you, present themselves as the gift they have always been. A gift, a gift to grow, to check in, to be reminded, to connect, to experience life at that very moment, to be awake, conscious. A gift from those around you, both here and across virtual space – time used of their life minutes dedicated to the reflection, to the growth of yours. What a gift we are to each other.